Yosemite Valley is under siege from tourists. Can it be saved?

To anyone who has visited Yosemite in recent years, the idea of an unencumbered stroll in the valley must seem like a quaint anachronism.

Photo: The Chronicle

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John Buckley has visited Yosemite more times than most will in a lifetime. As a young man, he remembers padding along the banks of the Merced River, which meanders through Yosemite Valley, the park’s main destination, with nary a soul in sight. “I used to go out there during springtime, and you could walk, and you’d see a person maybe every five or 10 minutes,” Buckley says.

To anyone who has visited the valley in recent years, the idea of an unencumbered stroll in the valley must seem like a quaint anachronism.

“Now it’s just a string of people on the trails and you’re walking right next to a line of cars on the road,” says Buckley, 69, executive director of Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center, a nonprofit group that works to protect and improve the Sierra Nevada environment. “It’s much less of a natural experience.”

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Yosemite National Park is back open and March rainstorms have turned the park's waterfalls into wondrous sights to see!
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It’s no secret: We love national parks. And we’re visiting them in record numbers, in some cases stretching their resources and infrastructure beyond what was ever intended. The most prominent example may be Zion, where 4.5 million people swarmed the park’s relatively modest 146,597 acres last year — about twice the visitorship the park saw just 15 years earlier.

Visitors to Yosemite, which is one of the five most frequented national parks, hovered around 3.7 million people annually for the decade leading up to 2016, when the count spiked to upward of 5 million for the first time ever. (The number came back down to about 4.3 million last year; park officials are bracing for a crush of tourists this season.) The deluge of people — to Yosemite Valley specifically — has park officials anxious to find a release valve as summer approaches and the onslaught of cars and campers begins.

“We have to manage the experience and manage expectations,” says Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman. “We realize that for a lot of people that either come from the U.S. and around the world, this is their one and only trip to the park. It’s incumbent upon us to protect that experience as much as we can.”

Annual visits to the park are soaring.

This isn’t the first time Yosemite officials have contemplated these problems or taken steps to curb crowding.

In fact, in the 1980s, the National Park Service backed off a plan it had initially approved to all but ban private vehicles and remove most buildings in the valley by 1990, much to the disappointment of conservationists. (At the time, the Park Service floated the idea of building a light-rail system “operated by 21st century technologies” to help reduce congestion.)

Trails around the valley are constantly being improved. For instance, the Yosemite Conservancy and the national park service are jointly funding a multiyear $13 million project at Bridalveil Fall this year. Several years ago, the park revamped the loop trail to Yosemite Falls, one of the shorter and easier trails in the park that leads to one of the most famous features, making it easier for people to get there (and easier to leave). In 2010, officials instituted a permitting system to ease pileups on the notoriously jam-packed hiking route up Half Dome after four people slipped and fell to their deaths. (No one has died on the hike since the permit system took effect.)

In 2015, after seven years of negotiations among the Park Service, local business leaders and other stakeholders, the park adopted the Merced Wild and Scenic River Final Comprehensive Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement. It’s a long, exhaustive list of analyses, allowances, prohibitions and user limits.

Yosemite Valley is under siege from tourists. Can it be...

1of 46Multi-tiered Yosemite Falls, recharged by rain and snowmelt, and photographed from Sentinel Meadow, is one of several waterfalls that has turned Yosemite Valley into the showpiece of the world.Photo: Courtesy National Park Service

2of 46Click on to see photos of the famous national park from our archives.

3of 46Trailing mists of snowstorm swirl over Yosemite Valley. Photo courtesy of Unite States Department of the Interior National Park Service. October 1, 1990

5of 46Yosemite Valley - This time of year is exciting for pictures and watching nature. A layer of fog rolls in to add interest to the scene. Snow is seen next to the river. March 14, 1980Photo: Gary Fong, San Francisco Chronicle

6of 46A Yosemite ranger surveys the snowpack along Tioga Pass Road in the park's high country. The record snowpack (at that time) delayed the reopening of the road at least until mid-June. Usually the road, which was closed each winter because of snowpack, is reopened by the Memorial Day weekend. UPI photo. May 18, 1983

8of 46This photo was taken August 11, 1988, for a story about the crowds at Yosemite Park. These sun lovers are swimming in the Merced River which was at a very low level that year.Photo: Steve Ringman, San Francisco Chronicle

10of 46This family is enjoying a bicycle ride by Ahwahnee Meadow. Upper Yosemite Fall is in the background. 1980Photo: Chronicle archives

11of 46One of the many wonders that attracted some 129 million visitors in 1966, is the 1,430' Upper Yosemite Fall in Yosemite National Park. Here the ice cone at the base of the fall, formed in the late winter and early springs as the flow of water increases, rises to a height of several hundred feet. Warmer weather and a heavier flow of water causes the cone to break up. National Park Service photo. June 9, 1966

12of 46An artist at Sunrise Camp waves to the woman on horseback, Sheridan King, who delivers provisions to the camp. July 18, 1990Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice, San Francisco Chronicle

13of 46Ranger John Roth talks to some kids he suspected of jumping off the Stoneman Bridge. May 30, 1994Photo: Michael Maloney, San Francisco Chronicle

14of 46Trail ride to the top of Nevada Fall. Stables located at Tuolumne Meadows, Wawona, White Wolf and Yosemite Valley. 1980Photo: Chronicle archives

24of 46The Yosemite that comes to mind when you think of its natural beauty and ruggedness. This is looking in the direction of Half Dome, with some deer grazing. September 20, 1990Photo: Scott Sommerdorf, San Francisco Chronicle

25of 46Tenaya Canyon in Yosemite Valley is a result of the massive grinding action of the ice age. This view from Glacier Point gives the camera fan a superlative view of the Sierra Range with majestic Half Dome at the right. Photo from Santa Fe Railway. July 18, 1976

29of 46Yosemite National Park - Campers waiting for the next available camp site. They started lining up at 1:30 a.m. that morning. May 26, 1978Photo: Gary Fong, San Francisco Chronicle

30of 46Yosemite National Park - The giant sequoia in the park's Mariposa Grove often grow to a height of 250' in their life of 2,500 years or so. 1980Photo: Chronicle archives

31of 46Tunnel View, Yosemite Valley. Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service. June 1933 (published in the paper December 8, 1989

32of 46Yosemite National Park. May 17, 1959Photo: Chronicle archives

33of 46Half Dome seen from Glacier Point. The dome is one of Yosemite's outstanding landmarks, rising 4,892' at the east end. A cable staircase leads up the back side to the summit, which is 13 acres in area. September 21, 1995Photo: Chronicle archives

34of 46This is the view looking down the trail towards Lower Yosemite Falls which is falling in the background (at a very low water level). The story that this photo was originally used for was about the crowding which really showed up at that popular trail up to the base of the falls. Visitors only have to walk about one half mile from their cars to the site, making it very popular. August 11, 1988Photo: Steve Ringman, San Francisco Chronicle

35of 46Yosemite Park National Park Service photo showing Cavalry Trooper of the U.S. Army at the base of the fallen Elephant's Foot Tree in the Mariposa Grove. Ca. 1900

37of 46A team of experts were looking at ways to remedy the overcrowding of Yosemite Valley, suggesting no more overnight stays, and on the other side of the scale, building more lodging. National Park Service Photo. March 4, 1968

43of 46Shown here is Colonel C.G. Thomson, superintendent of Yosemite National Park, unveiling the bronze plaque in memory of Stephen T. Mather, organizer and first director of the National Park Service, at ceremonies held at Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley on July 4, 1932Photo: Chronicle archives

44of 46Yosemite National Park. May 12, 1994Photo: Chronicle archives

45of 46A magnificent view of Yosemite Falls and overlook of Yosemite Valley can be obtained from Glacier Point, and hours' drive from the valley. September 1980Photo: Chronicle archives

46of 46Yosemite Valley takes on a different perspective when viewed from the east. Glacier Point is at the far left. North Dome on the far right. Cathedral Rocks and the top of El Capitan can be seen in the background. 1980Photo: Chronicle archives

Included is a plan to cap the number of people in Yosemite Valley at 20,100 per day (and set a limit of 18,710 people at any given time) to foster “an enhanced ‘sense of arrival’” among visitors who may be opening their car doors beneath the park’s magnificent granite monoliths for the first time. Other provisions call for increasing day use parking in the valley, boosting the number of campsites and lodging units, and reducing traffic congestion.

Yosemite

Whether there has been meaningful progress toward those goals is up for debate.

Wawona Visitor Center is a hot spot.

Photo: The Chronicle

Upward of 8,000 cars and a potential 23,000 tourists — well above the established user limit — have been counted in the valley on summer days in recent years. Horror stories of two-hour traffic standstills are common among anyone who has tried getting into the park on a sunny Saturday. (There’s actually a new term for the scenario of sitting in standstill traffic in popular natural settings: greenlock.) Chalk the cause up to whatever you like: Instagram-loving Millennials, legions of retiring Baby Boomers or hyped-up, state-funded national park promotional campaigns.

On a recent trip to Yosemite, Buckley found himself bumper-to-bumper on Highway 120 coming into the park’s west entrance. When he finally got to the valley, he couldn’t find a parking space and wound up cutting his day trip short. “That is simply irresponsible park management,” he wrote in an email. “To charge people and to allow them to enter Yosemite, but not to inform them that there are no available parking spaces, is just not right.”

Last summer, the park started offering reservations on 150 parking spaces in the valley. But what happened, Gediman says, is drivers who had reservations would swoop into whichever parking spaces were available wherever they wanted to go. “We had spaces we had to keep empty all day” for people who reserved them but never showed, Gediman says. And in other places in the valley, people would just double-park. A traffic roundabout installed at the eastern end of the valley hasn’t helped much either.

Tracking the traffic around Hetch Hetchy.

Photo: The Chronicle

Pundits and former park officials have floated the idea of hard-capping the number of tourists allowed in certain national parks — as much for the health of the land as the user experience.

“These are irreplaceable resources,” Joan Anzelmo, a retired Park Service superintendent, told Yale University’s online magazine Yale Environment 360 last year. “We have to protect them by putting some strategic limits on numbers, or there won’t be anything left.”

This summer, the goal at Yosemite is to begin to ascertain, with precision, where tourists are going, what they’re doing, when, and for how long.

“We’re trying to analyze the way people are visiting the park,” Gediman says. “We want to look at use patterns for people.”

For instance, on certain weekends, park officials will halt traffic on Highway 140, one of the two main arteries Bay Area travelers take into the park’s west side, and release cars incrementally to spread out motorists.

Random visitors will be asked upon arrival to carry a GPS unit with them during the course of their stay. That information will go to the national park service.

“There can’t be a lot of infrastructure changes — it wouldn’t be appropriate in Yosemite,” says Frank Dean, president of the Yosemite Conservancy, which funds park improvements and has taken an interest in understanding the tangle of activity in the valley.

“You don’t build your way out of this challenge, you manage it.”

Gediman, however, says the park won’t ever be able to manage away crowding and gridlock. “The solution isn’t all on us; it’s going to have to come from how visitors come here and use the place.”

Another element of the Park Service’s overall strategy involves posting suggestions for planning a valley visit. They cover what you might expect: Come early. Leave late. Make campsite reservations in advance. “Pack your patience.” But of course there’s no secret formula for outmaneuvering the millions-strong blitz of valley visitors — although some have tried concocting one.

Last year, a San Francisco engineer and rock climber, looking for a workaround to the tedious trial-and-error process of claiming a campsite on www.recreation.gov, wrote a computer script that scraped the system for campsite cancellations and availability at Yosemite. (It’s since been copied several times, making one wonder whether sharing it publicly negated its intended purpose.)

All this raises the question of what we want and what is reasonable to expect from our national parks. It’s the question Gediman carries with him every day at work: how to balance serving the public and preserving the wild.

It’s unlikely that the experience of visiting Yosemite is in for any revolutionary changes any time soon. What’s clear is this: If you want to avoid the mess, steer clear of the valley. If you’re hoping for a natural experience in the most popular place in the park, you need to recalibrate your expectations.

“People need to understand,” Gediman says, “that they’re not going to get a wilderness experience in Yosemite Valley.”

“Yosemite Valley represents less than 5 percent of the park, but it’s where well over 90 percent of visitors go,” says Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman. The park encompasses more than 748,000 acres, and yet the vast majority of its millions of visitors are drawn to that little buzzing sliver of traffic snarls, selfie sticks and, now, a Starbucks. If you’re willing to venture beyond the valley, it’s easy enough to put some distance between yourself and the masses and find the oft-stunning, if less-hyped, pieces of the park. Those who do are apt to find a more peaceful and fulfilling nature experience. Here are three hikes to get you started.

Hetch Hetchy Valley

In one of his screeds condemning the proposed O’Shaughnessy Dam, John Muir exalted Hetch Hetchy Valley to church-level status, stating that “no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.” Today, it makes for a laid-back respite from the park’s more popular valley. For a day hike, take the relatively flat foot path around the reservoir to the picturesque Wapama Falls (5.5 miles out and back), or continue all the way to the soothingly loud cascades of Rancheria Falls (13 miles out and back). The Rancheria Falls trailhead (which passes Wapama) starts at the dam.

Pro tip: Bring a water filter and tap San Francisco’s water supply at the source — from the falls, not the reservoir.

On the eastern edge of the park is this gem of a hike, which doesn’t attract the same level of attention as hikes that start in Tuolumne Meadows. The trail takes you above Mono Lake and its famous tufas; once you hit the pass, go about a quarter mile farther and you’ll arrive at a shelf overlooking both Mono and Upper Sardine lakes. Start: Just inside the Tioga Pass entrance along Highway 120 is the Mono Pass trailhead (it’s easy to spot from the road).

Pro tip: If you’re heading out from the Bay Area, make sure Tioga Road is open before you go!

The Mist Trail gets all the attention, which has kept this awesome trail under the radar. But with several falls along the route and a 50-foot cascade at the end, Chilnualna Falls is worth the trip. About 5 miles into the park’s southern entrance on Highway 41, you’ll spot the Wawona Hotel (now called Big Trees Lodge); drive across the bridge over the Merced River and take a right on Chilnualna Falls Road. The trailhead parking lot is 1.5 miles up the road.

Pro tip: Go in late spring, when flows are high and the falls are surging.

Gregory Thomas is a travel editor at The Chronicle focusing on all things California. He hosts the Wild West podcast, which features interviews with adventure athletes and environmental advocates (subscribe here). Before that, he served as Senior Editor at Outside Magazine in New Mexico where he edited news, enterprise stories, and features in print and online. He’s worked at a tech-media startup, reported for major metro newspapers, written features for national magazines, and done his share of internships. He holds a Master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley.